The longtime friends and doubles partners combined for games of 413, 414 and 409 at the South Point Bowling Plaza on the way to the top spot with 1,236 total. Douglas Turney and Brennan Nett of Kiel, Wisconsin, previously held the lead with 1,201.

“I had no idea what was going on until Robert said we were leading,” said Sheck, who made his 22nd USBC Open Championships appearance. “I thought he was joking. I just did not believe him because with the new division, we were unsure if we were going to be at the top.”

Tonelli, who bowled in his 41st USBC Open Championships, led the charge with games of 213, 235 and a 182 for a 630 series, while Sheck added 200, 179 and 227 for a 606 series.

“Since Stuart has been coming out here, we have bowled as doubles partners for each of his 22 years,” Tonelli said. “This feels great. We have been bowling for a long time and never had anything like this happen before. I knew we were having a good set, but I didn’t know how good it was until it was over. I didn’t even know what was leading, so that may have helped us, since we did not have to worry about how many pins we needed.”

Standard Doubles features teams with combined entering averages of 361-409.